In "The Secretary", George interviews an applicant who says:
"I'm well versed in all the Macintosh and IBM programs."
Macintosh and IBM programs? I don't know much about Mac, but the only "IBM Programs" I can think of are stuff like OS/2, ComMgr/2 and DB2/2 and SQL Server stuff, I mean, IBM never wrote any end user business type software (I mean along the lines of spreadsheet or word processing software), right? Isn't that partly why they bought Lotus in the first place (well, that and free worldwide Lotus Notes licenses)?
Why they had the applicant mention IBM instead of Micro$oft is beyond me. I mean, I hate M$ as much as the next guy who truly detests M$, and it would have warmed my heart to think they did it on purpose, but the Seinfeld crew has nothing against M$; there was even a conspicuous Windows 95 box on Jerry's computer desk at one point.
I suppose the only assumption I can make is that, as a group, the actors and production folks don't know much about the computer industry in general, or *someone* might have spoken up during a reading or something.
I think it stems from the fact that in the beginning there were only two types of computer protocols, apple and IBM. The computers or software may have been a different brand but was said to be "apple compatible" or "IBM compatible". I think that has stuck around until today.......
I guess it was the use of the word "programs" that threw me. Non-techies might say "programs" when they mean "platforms". Still, if she was supposed to be so knowledgeable that it's on her job application, she should have used the proper terminology. not that George (Costanza) would have been able to tell!
Thanks George, but this will not turn into a typical computer geek
argument. For a vast majority of the non computer savvy world, Rick is
right. It's Apple or IBM.
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wow... perhaps you're pulling my leg, or being friendly, but I'm surprised you can remember maoself. I didn't think I had made that much of an impact here. Or perhaps yr memory is as good as mine (in which case, I'd be scared...)
Actually, I always had to make a mental note to differentiate you from THE OTHER JUSTIN. Surely you remember Justin Tribble, right? He used to post those ridiculously long diatribes like every Friday about how absolutely horrible each new episode was during the last 2 seasons because Larry David was no longer involved in the writing. If you never came back, you may have eventually slipped from my memory (which is pretty damned good if you count Seinfeld information!) but Mr. Tribble will stay with me forever.
<sentimental>
Anyway, good to have you back. :)
</sentimental>
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Ditto for you, with that guy who USED TO CROSSPOST THOSE LONG RAMBLING INCOHERENT ILLEGIBLE MESSAGES WITH POOR PUNCTUATION AND SPELLING LIKE THIS. Remember him? David H?
Yeah, I remember him. I thought he was nothing more than a common troll. Same with that Asian rights guy... Tanaka or something.
Now that it's over I can look back and laugh. I mean, I *was* the #1 MEAN WON, right?
Anyway, he's just a normal guy. He still posts in the FSU Seminoles NG
and he's reasonably intelligent and coherent. Uses lowercase letter and
punctuation, has a reall small .SIG file, spells words correctly,
doesn't insult anyone. I guess he just needed to "get it out of his
system" or something.
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oh yeah, to answer your question, I've been good. Aside from the past week, I haven't watched much Seinfeld since the finale (I guess I OD'd on the show in the weeks leading up to the finale... with this NG, magazines, newspapers, reruns upon reruns, etc., I guess a break was due). So, I'm probably a little rusty on my useless facts. It'll come back to me.
I think you're getting a little too critical, I think the reference to IBM was a platform reference, not a software company reference. To most people the Intel pc market is still the IBM market despite the fact that almost no-one buys an actual IBM PC nowadays.
A lot of people still call teh PC market IBM's. When IBM decided to license cloning, they never made much money off it, but Microshaft did. The PC platform is still technically IBM clones. So IBM programs are programs that run on IBM's and their clones, not actual software written by IBM.
I noticed the same to, like in the episode where Frank sells computers from his own garage, George asks how do you think you're gonna pull this off, theres too much competition, MICROSOFT, IBM.... Last time i checked, microsoft didnt sell hardware (computers) but software.
No, but IBM tried to compete with Microsoft in the SOFTWARE market. E. G.; Lotus Suite vs. MS Office in the business world - IBM does sell software but not too much to the home market. There is a whole geeky history there but remember IBM tried to market OS/2 as an operating system to the masses - Bill peddled Windows and (unfortunately) won. So IBM did try to take him on on his own turf. from what I understand Gates was part of the original development of OS/2 and was able to pull out of it and then developed Windows. (some facts may be incorrect)
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To keep us on target - what other computer references have there been in
Seinfeld?
Jerry says" I must get on that internet I'm late on everything" from "The Yada yada"
Jerry calls a computer store to trace back a receipt in "The Truth"
I think that Kramer is asked by Murphy Brown if he's familiar with some computer programs (The Keys) but I'm not sure. of course he replies "Oh! I'm familiar"
But IBM didn't develop the office suite, they just bought Lotus. All IBM software that I can think of is business related. I think the main reason they even bought Lotus was so they wouldn't have to pay tremendous licensing fees for using Notes worldwide. I used to work for IBM, about 4 years ago they were in the process of a huge switch from VM to Notes as the "corporate e-mail solution". Imagine telling Lotus you want to purchase a license for, oh, say 3 million users. Why not just buy the company?
OS/2 never took off in the home market, but it's still huge in the business world. Most banks use OS/2 for their servers/workstations and ATMs. Many insurance companies use OS/2, Ford Motor Company runs OS/2 in their factories. Yet, when I call Gateway and they say they can build my PC ANY WAY I WANT IT, then the line gets really quiet when I mention I WANT IT with OS/2 Warp preloaded. Nope. No matter who you call or where you go, you have 2 OS choices. You can either take the preloaded Win98 or you can have a blank hard drive, the cost is the same.
When I get really bitter, I want into Circuit City or whatever, then spend a half hour leading a salesman through all kindsa bullshit about the system I'm buying. I load up the cart with external drives, tons of peripherals, we talk about the 350MHz machine I'm about to buy, the 14 GB hard drive; the dollar signs light up in his eyes. Then at the right moment, I ask him about Warp. A few minutes later, after he's returned from his consultation with the only guy in the store who's heard of OS/2, he tells me about their "Windows or nothing" policy. I then ask him to tell his boss that they just lost a $7,000 sale, and I leave the cart full of components for him to restock. Maybe if enough people do this, it might get mentioned in a corporate meeting somewhere, who knows.
Gates is a bastard. I'm not gonna go into it here, but if you do a web
search, you'll find some interesting reading.
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out of the night, justin, never a stranger to the off-topic, emerges, drawn to the subject line...
Dave wrote:
Ok. Well, first off, you must have a lot of time on your hands to concoct such a scheme =), but what if he said "ok"? What would you do if he agreed to throw in OS/2? Would that be one of those "I... uh.... gotta go to the bathroom", and then dash to the car and out of the parking lot type of deals? (=
I didn't see the whole news clip, but Bill was visiting schools here in our neighbouring city, Mississauga just last week. Don't know how this applies to anything, but I just felt like saying it. But yes, I'm not fond of Gates either, to say the least.
Caution! - Some Canadian content below....{Canadian Content: ON}Yep, his MS-Offices are at Highway 10 and 401. Going to work up the troops I guess. He is interested in getting MS-products in schools (that was my territory for a number of years) as much as MacDonalds wants to get themselves into school cafeterias. I don't trust his motives when he talks about his commitment to education - it is based on $$ not really charity (altho' he has done some of that).He was interviewed by Pamela Wahlen(sp) and slimed through questions about corporate monopolies and anti-trust legislation so maybe he is lobbying to ensure that doesn't happen here. He put Mike Copland (Corel) through the wringer and is maybe ensuring there is no federal aid to Corel. I am sure he wasn't here for the Fall colours.
And boy, do I agree with Dave - there were many better operating systems for PC's - Linux, QNX, OS/2 etc - but the world bought Windows ... - Oh well, we elected Harris - same thing!
I thought about it one Saturday at the mall with my girlfriend. She was trying on clothes so I had plenty of time to kill. I went to the bookstore first and, while fuming because the computer section had 50 Windown books and exactly zero OS/2 books, The next store over was a Circuit City (I think) and since I was feeling very anti-M$ already, messing with the salesman was a spur of the moment decision. I did it a second time at BrandsMart USA and, sick as it sounds, I enjoyed it!
To answer your question, in the one-in-a-million chance they would be able to accomodate my particular OS needs, I would have gone into shock and probably would have bought the computer without even realizing it.
Actually, now that I think about it, If I found out they would actually sell a PC with OS/2 preloaded, and were willing to SUPPORT that machine, I would have dumped the extras and spent about $2,000 on a decent system. Honest.
Visiting schools. Because he cares about the "future of the nation"? Nope. Because he sees a whole new generation of Micro$oft customers to tap into? You betcha.